Agriculture lagging in adopting best practice in IP protection

Agriculture remains one of the last industries to fully comprehend and adopt best practices in terms of IP protection, according to specialist firm IP Solved.

The Independent intellectual property focused firm based in Sydney will be attending the Henty Machinery Field Days on September 19-21.

IP Solved provides services in the areas of the creation, protection, commercialisation, enforcement and management of IP rights.

Principal Len Mancini is a patent attorney and also a citrus farmer who is excited to see what this year’s crop of exhibitors have to offer Australian farmers.

“There has been an explosion of innovation in agricultural products and services which has been promoted by all levels of government,” Mr Mancini said.

“We are starting to see dividends of those programs in the form of innovative products and services that give Australian producers the edge in their domestic and international markets.

“In recent years there has been a lot of buzz around emerging technologies like AI, drones, and other data driven crop and stock management technologies.

“This is on top of the usual innovation in the areas of farm machinery, specialised tools and implements. 

“Never before has there been a time when farmers have had so many high tech solutions to everyday issues. 

“It will be good to meet with the producers of these new products and technologies as in a lot of cases they are unaware of what protections could be put in place to prevent them from being copied here by their competitors or their unauthorised adoption in foreign markets.”

Mr Mancini said the regional producers and service providers involved in agriculture remain one of the last industries to fully comprehend and adopt best practices in terms of IP protection.

“There is so much more that could be done to generate IP and derive value from it for their owners and Australian international market places,” he said.

Mr Mancini has many clients in regional Australia who market goods and serves to farmers as well as many regional producers themselves and is well placed to provide advice to clients in these areas.